Hello everyone!

Because I forgot to blog on sunday Im going to use this time to respond to Freedom Writers to count towards this weeks blog post. I really enjoyed the movie! I enjoyed it a lot more than The Class and don’t think the two can even really compare of be used in the same sentance. Mrs G’s class was truly inspirational, the movies outcome was unrealistic but It was awesome for my perspective knowing it was based off of a somewhat true story. It takes people like Mrs.G people with patience and dedication to turn a school around which is what she essentially did, except she only worked with one class. I think sometimes teachers are afraid to take risks and chances on their students. Most of the time when they do there is a good outcome but everyone is always afraid of doing something thats different and out of the ordinary, which is what Mrs G essentially did. She went into the school with a good attitude and had faith in her students, she wanted them to do well and not fail. overall I was very impressed and glad We watched that movie. I now understand after watching Freedom Writers why you had us watch the other film in comparison.

The Class Response

Mr. Marin over exaggerates the point of his childish behavior to prove his point. He is trying to provoke the viewer to question why a teacher should be able to demand respect without having earned it, yet preaches to kids that the only way to get respect is to earn it. He is trying to point out the irony in the situation. Mr. Marin acts more immature than the kids do. He got easily provoked by the young girls and called them skanks. He made sarcastic comments making fun of the other people but not allowing anyone to talk that way to him. His behavior is less respectful than normal students. I say normal because the kids in his class acted absurdly also. He could be trying to say that kids should act that way towards teachers who don’t practice what they preach.

Mr. Marin wants to show a problem with the schooling system. Kids are forced to be there, and are forced to respect the teacher. Yet the teacher does nothing to earn they’re respect. The students are taught to act a certain way, but the teachers fail to be the role model. Which passes on a conflicting message to young kids, confusing them. That type of environment discourages the pursuit of knowledge; instead it encourages the students to unite together against the system in a way. Why do we break rules just because they are rules?

The Class is a good contrast to Freedom Writers. The movie takes place at a school in Paris, yet most of the kids in the class come from a foreign country. The class is as diverse if not more so than the class in Freedom Writers. We see that despite their different backgrounds they all get along perfectly. They are all good friends. It seems that everything that Ms. Gruwell worked for in The Freedom Writers, to unite the class despite their differences, had already occurred before Mr. Marin came in to teach them. The unity however did not encourage them to study or better themselves. They seemed pretty unified in their desire to disrupt class and put off learning. One kid interrupted a lecture to ask about his grades, all he cared about was an increasing gpa instead of Mr. Marin’s efforts to teach him. It is interesting how Ms. Gruwell devoted her whole life to trying to have her students unify and Mr. Miran’s class is unified despite different races and backgrounds yet they use their unity against him.

Freedom Writers Response

The students in Freedom Writers resist the entire school system because they believe that the school doesn’t even want to teach them, so what is the point of wanting to learn? They all have much more serious problems to deal with at home then homework. And when they get to class they are surrounded by their enemies on the streets. School is a joke to them, just as the school thinks that they are a joke.

Ms. Gruwell is able to succeed because she proves to them that she is actually interested in their future, and that she wants them to learn. She puts effort into them, and they give her effort in return. The saying you get what you put in fits the situation. Before Ms. Gruwell the school didn’t invest any interest in them so they invested no interested back to the school. But before she could teach them, she had to unify them. Their whole lives they had been told to protect their own. Nobody that is different is important. Their only concern is their own people. They were all the same kids and had the same lives, only difference was the color of their skin. Mrs. Gruwell was able to realize that and she was able to open the kid’s eyes to that knowledge. Once Mrs. Gruwell was able to unify them and gain their respect she was able to teach them, and they were willing to learn.

This movie is trying to portray two points. The first is that the color of the skin doesn’t matter, kids from the same area are the same. Race means nothing in the big picture. The second point is that if someone is willing to put enough effort into making a difference in the world, it is possible. It isn’t easy but, “never, never, never, never give up.”- Winston Churchill

This movie is truly inspiring. Mrs. Gruwell was there for the children when no one else was and she believed in them.  It was very interesting when not one parent showed up for the open house to meet their child’s teacher.  This movie shows to never give up because she started with having zero control and respect, but by the end of the movie, the children all respected her and she became a role model for them.  It was amazing that she could even acquire the respect from the students because they have little respect for anyone except for fellow gang members or friends. Continue reading →

When Ms. Gruwell’s first day at her new school didn’t go the way she had hoped she still continued to try to win the respect from her students every other day after that. The students did not make her first day very easy though and why should they? They had never been treated as real students before. The students also felt that there were more important things to learn in life, such as how to survive in the real world! Ms. Gruwell decided that she was going to prove to the students that an education is important; she wanted to prove to the kids that an education could get them out of the ghetto instead of only having to dribble a ball or rap a rhyme. Ms. Gruwell does, in fact, succeed. She goes above and beyond what she is required to do so she can win the student’s respect. She proves to the students that she truly does care about them and their education.

I believe the audience is supposed to learn a couple things from this movie, one is that when someone truly cares about something they will do what they can to make sure they get the care they need. For instance, Ms. Gruwell teaching her kids about the holocaust and not to pick on each other. The second thing the audience could learn from this movie is that people do stick to their comforts zones at first but when given a little push they can get out of it. One last thing I believe the audience could learn from this movie is that when the teacher and their students get along, things are much easier. Teachers and students can’t just automatically get along though, they will need to both try.

The Freedom Writers is truly an inspiring and uplifting story.  A young teacher was able to take a freshman high school English class that was plagued with hatred and unite it.  At the beginning of the school year the kids has no desire to learn or be an active part of the English class.  They did not want anything to do with school because they had bigger concerns in their life and had no motivation to learn.  I also think a major reason why the kids did not want to learn was because in their minds they had no hope.  Never in any of these students’ lives did anyone ever believe in them, until Mrs. Gruwll.  Mrs. G was able to give her students hope; hope for a better life, hope for peace, hope for the future, a hope for change.  By making her students look past differences in race and gang affiliation, she was able to make it clear that all the kids were very much alike; all the students carried similar burdens and could relate to one another’s struggles.  Mrs. G also brought the class to life by choosing topics that were relevant in the kids’ lives.  The students’ attention was gained by using relatable material and also finding a class comradely.

The story can have many different messages for its audience.  One message would be that one person can make a difference.  Mrs. G’s patience, resiliency, love and belief changed each of these students’ lives for the better.  Another message could be that differences can be overcome.  This class full of a diversity and hatred was transformed into a family.

Towards the beginning of the movie, Mrs. Gruwell was timid and obviously new at her job. The kids caught onto that right away; it reminded me of how people say that predators can smell your fear. Children always tend to resist if they feel that they are being led by an inferior leader. They just had no respect for her until she demanded it. I loved the line in the movie Mrs. Gruwell said to her husband that the only person they hated more than each other was her. She finally grew a tough skin and took charge instead of letting them walk all over her, which is how she succeeded in getting their attention. Once she got them to focus on what really mattered and to understand that each clique had some common ground, they hit the ground running and the rest was history. She successfully turned the classroom into a safe haven in the helluva high school they attended.

I hate to be cliche and obvious but I’d say the audience should “learn” that given a real chance, any kid can be successful and turn him or herself into something. It’s just few and far between that we see someone like Mrs. Gruwell that would literally throw away her life to help those kids out. It’s truly inspiring.

In about the first half of Freedom Writers, Ms. Gruwell made extremely minimal progress teaching her students. The rather apparent cause of the students’ lack of progress was their unwillingness to put for any substantial effort into the class. Rather than attempting to present her students with more material which they would practically ignore, Ms. Gruwell decided to face the root cause of their learning issues. She continuously pressed the students, demanding an answer as to why they resisted formal education. One day, a girl answered Ms. Gruwell’s question stating “It’s because we don’t respect you.” It seemed that Ms. Gruwell took this as less of an insult and more as a challenge. She went on to present her students with assignments which she felt would intrigue her students, while simultaneously treating them with the level of respect they would eventually give her. It seemed that as the students received assignments which interested them (seemingly for the first time in their school careers) they found it easier to trust and respect their teacher for her efforts for the sake of their education. This coupled with the level of respect Ms. Gruwell showed her students seemed to really bring the kids out of their shells both towards the teacher and the others in the class, allowing their learning barriers which previously seemed impermeable to quickly disintegrate.

In the beginning of the movie it was very clear that Mrs. Gruwell had no control over what her classroom or how the kids behaved, and this was shown through the fight that happened in the court yard of the school when all the kids of the school were in a fight. This was, what I think was the turning point for Mrs. Gruwell, where she decided she someone had to unite these kids. I think her attempt at uniting the kids was more successful than she thought it would be. The kids big resistance against Mrs. Gruwell I think has to do with the fact that growing up and being consider the kids that are never going to account to anything, why should they have trust in Mrs. Gruwell, if they believe she has no faith or trust in them. From this film I think the audience are suppose to learn that anything can happen, and kids are the future. If you don’t have faith in them why are they going to have faith in themselves. I think that was the main lesson the audience was suppose to learn from the film. Everyone deserves a chance.